*ON HOLD* Blackbirds (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 6: Help

"He made me who I was. He was the one who made me think killing was a good thing. He manipulated me to do his work. I hate the bastard." She said her fists clenching.

"He took me from my family. He said he would kill everyone I loved, all my friends-and me- if I didn't join. He forced me into it. Kevin was the only one there for me- but we all know what happened to him." I took my right hand and dragged them over the cuts and scars on my left arm.

"We're sorry about that. We thought you were going to use them for your own use. We had to destroy them." Clint said shifting the weight from his left to his right.

"No, it's fine. He knew his time was coming. In that business, he was overdue." I blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill over. after a long few minutes of silence, Natasha decided to speak up.

"Hey Clint? Can us girls speak for a moment... alone?" Clint got the not-so subtle hint and left the room closing the door on his way out.

"What's wrong, Natasha?" I asked as she sat on the bed. I was taking deep breaths, clenching and unclenching my fists, trying hard not to flinch or back away.

"Just call me Nat. Um.. What..." She sighed and looked at me with such sadness for an emotionless assassin, I couldn't believe it. "What the hell did they do to you?" she asked after hesitating.

I waited thinking about what they did. "They gave me pain, and they took things from me. They tortured me everyday, and if not, then every other. I was kidnapped the night we saw each other, got out when you came. The only times I left that room was to be tortured. I got out one other time... but that was different. They- they were trying to make me feel as much pain as I could without dying. And they did. They said they wanted to avenge their friends' deaths, but they would have just killed me. Why does this happen to me?" I wiped away the tears that were now falling silently.

At this point, I felt like I could only trust her, but I still couldn't bring myself to do it. She had the ability to kill me three times, but she didn't. She spared my life and wanted to help me. So I wanted to tell her what happened. I was a threat and she decided to keep me alive. I still didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D though. Nat went through the same things as me. She knows, but only the half of it. No one else knows the other.

"At first, they gave me this." I pointed to the scar that was almost on my hairline. "It was the first person I killed. He was trying to sell explosives, and I shot him in the forehead. The next one was worse. They shot me twice in the stomach, and apparently the guy I shot knew that he had to get the bullets out, so they did that to me. The guy who shot me took the first out. Then they made my um... ex-best friend take the other one out." As I said this I showed her the two round scars. I pointed to a long, diagonal cut on my stomach, going from under where my ribs started to right under my belly button.

"This one... There was a man pointing a gun at my head so I pushed the gun away and cut him. So they did the same. It was deep, and if they hadn't had the doctors there I would have died in minutes.

"They kept doing things... less major things, like stabs or cuts, burns, shooting me. That was until a few nights ago." The tears came out at a quicker pace now. The memory's came flooding back, their faces etched into my brain. HIS face etched into my brain. "They said something about not having a lady in their presence in a while, said the commander left... They then took-took me to a room... where they..." I looked up hoping I wouldn't have to say it. She looked terrified, like she had been my friend for a while and we were talking about this as best friends. She looked into my pleading eyes and she pulled me into an embrace. I stiffened but soon relaxed when she rubbed my back soothingly.

I cried into her shoulder, grabbing her as if my life depended on it. It felt like it had. She saved me from them. She took me away from the hell I lived in. I hadn't cried like this in years. Since I was... I'd say 8. She kept saying soothing words into my ear. After a what felt like hours, I straitened up.